Matt Reynolds <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > This may not be the appropriate list for this, but as I'm not sure > what the proper list is, I will throw myself at your collective > mercy. > > I have "lost" my /var/lib/dpkg/available and /var/lib/dpkg/status > files in a FS error. Beyond the actual errors themselves, how do I > recover/regenerate these files? I poked in the archives and found > some resounding answers saying "Um, no", but I'm hoping I can hack > on it. > > I have said files on other boxes, of fairly similar configuration. > Can I hack on those files to get them into a working configuration?
/var/lib/dpkg/available shouldn't matter---just copy across another one from a machine with the same /etc/apt/sources.list. I presume this means you also don't have /var/lib/dpkg/status-old? It doesn't look to me like /var/lib/dpkg/status contains information that would be impossible to construct reasonably satisfactorily from other sources. Ignoring packages that have been uninstalled but still have config information lying around, I'd have thought just getting a list of installed packages (using "ls /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.list"?) and using the information from /var/lib/dpkg/available would be pretty much OK (adding "Status: install ok installed")? I'd have thought the worst that would be likely to happen would be that dpkg would get confused when reinstalling uninstalled packages for which configuration in fact exists. But all that seems too simple, and people do recommend reinstalling, so possibly I'm missing something important? [...] -- Bruce Stephens [EMAIL PROTECTED] ACI Worldwide/MessagingDirect <URL:http://www.MessagingDirect.com/>
